The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings

The Women Could Fly

Author: Megan Giddings

Genre: Fiction, Magical Realism, Feminism

Format: Physical purchase

Publish Date: August 2022

Read: March 2024

Favorite Quote: My father told me once it wasn’t true that people get more conservative over time; he said they just get tired and it’s easy when you’re tired to be agreeable.

Story Synopsis: Josephine Thomas (Jo) has tried to make sense of her mother’s disappearance fourteen years prior. Now, at twenty-eight, Jo is approaching the age where she must be married or forfeit her autonomy by registering with the state’s Bureau of Witchcraft for constant monitoring. Men are meant to be protectors. They protect society from witchcraft and women from themselves.

When Jo receives a missive from her mother’s lawyers to travel to Lake Superior and take a picture of herself there to inherit money, Jo finds herself swept away to a magical island full of women who are unburdened by the rules and monitoring of the state. Then, Jo must decide to stay on the island or return home to her life and what awaits after her own disappearance.

Why does this book beguile? I loved Megan Giddings’ take on witchcraft in The Women Could Fly. Rather than dive into magic systems, the way Giddings used witchcraft as a tool for this society to uphold gender inequality was powerful. The Women Could Fly is a quiet novel; it doesn’t scream sermons at the reader but scathingly articulates the type of otherness non-white, non-straight people feel regularly.

I was not expecting to enjoy this novel as much as I did. It sang to me and made me feel helpless yet powerful, hopeful, and strong. I also found a great deal of crossover after reading Rage Becomes Her recently - a potent combination of books.

Rating: 5/5

Link*: The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings

If you’re interested in this, read*: Rage Becomes Her by Soraya Chemaly